


Trouble

by faithlessone



Category: The Greatest Showman (2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-06
Updated: 2018-01-06
Packaged: 2019-03-01 03:43:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13286283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faithlessone/pseuds/faithlessone
Summary: She knows he’s going to be trouble from the first moment she sees him.





	Trouble

She knows he’s going to be trouble from the first moment she sees him.

Fancy, in a way that she knows, she knows well. The kind of man who wears a top hat and tails like he was born in them; the kind of man who goes to restaurants with five forks at a place setting and knows which one to use for every course; the kind of man who never had to work for anything a damn day in his life. She’s seen his type a hundred times. They’re nothing but trouble.

And now he’s standing at the edge of her ring with a look on his face like he’s seen heaven.

It won’t last. Whatever P.T. is thinking of, bringing that kind of swell to their show, it won’t last. This is just a lark to him. When he’s had his fill of freaks, he’ll scurry back to his society belles and laugh.

Everyone has an act; this is his.

*

An invitation from a queen, a real queen.

He presents it like a trophy, like a triumph. He doesn’t see the problems. Perhaps the queen of England is happy to have Barnum’s Oddities perform in front of her, some sideshow entertainment, but… there’s a difference between a performance and an _audience_. And her kind are rarely welcome in their kind of society.

“Are we all invited?” she asks.

She expects him to falter, to hesitate, to backpedal. To say that, of course, only _certain_ members of their little family are going across the sea. But he doesn’t. He glances at the letter for a moment, and then tells her, without a shadow of a doubt, that either they all go, or none of them do.

Her heart leaps without her permission, and she forces herself not to smile.

*

The journey across the ocean seems longer on the return than it did on the departure.

She can’t bear to conceal herself in her cabin with Lettie this time, terrified and hiding from the rest of the passengers. Hiding from their stares and whispers and jokes. Instead, she searches out a quiet part of the deck and practices. Can’t let her skills grow rusty. The waves of the ocean remind her of swinging on her trapeze. She misses the feeling of flying.

He finds her, all but hanging over the edge of the railing.

“Please don’t jump,” he cautions, and there is a grin on his lips and a sparkle in his eyes that makes her stomach flip.

She shakes her head, and lets herself smile back.

*

England shouldn’t have changed anything, but it did.

P.T. says he’s building them a ‘better’ reputation. Appealing to a ‘bigger’ audience. She isn’t so innocent that she doesn’t know what that means, but the night the Swedish Nightingale sings, she tries to pretend it’s a good thing.

They stand at the back. P.T. says it’s because the acoustics are better, and she makes herself believe him. He stands beside her, half-watching her watch the performance. His hand lingers near hers, his fingers wrapping around hers.

It makes her heart race, like she’s flying through the air and…

Then he sees people watching, and he lets go of her like she’s a burning brand.

*

He tries to apologise a dozen times.

Words upon words. Men like him, they think everything can be solved with fancy promises. As if you aren’t defined by your actions at all. As if what you do isn’t _more_ important than what you say.

She’s looking forward to the play, despite herself.

“I thought you wouldn’t come if I asked,” he says.

He’s right, in that respect, at least. And she should have turned tail and left with her head held high as soon as she heard his voice. But she let herself hope, just for a moment. Hope that, perhaps, he had learned that actions spoke louder than words, that a girl like her could go to a play with a man like him and _pretend_ , if only for an evening.

She knew he was trouble, and she didn’t listen to herself.

*

It’s easy at the circus.

He doesn’t see that. He proves it, over and over again, but he doesn’t _understand_. Within these walls, they can be whoever they like. She flies, and people point and smile and love her. They cheer and clap and call for more. Within these walls they can be free.

But out there…

He talks of changing their destiny, of rewriting the stars, of _loving_ her. As if what he wants isn’t publically rejected, isn’t socially objectionable, isn’t actually illegal. As if what he wants is even possible.

But she loves him back, even if she shouldn’t.

*

She’s never been so frightened in all her life.

The first time she flew from a trapeze, high in the air, nothing to save her if she fell except her brother’s hands, she was excited, exhilarated, ecstatic. A million times since, a million million, she’s thrown herself into empty air with the trust that there will be something there to catch her.

She never thought it could feel like her whole world was falling away from her.

Flames lick at her and smoke rises as she runs full pelt down the back stairs. Somehow she knows that this must be it. The protestors have been getting worse and worse every day, and now they have finally shown their hand. She bursts through the back door, praying that everyone else has made it out.

W.D. pulls her into his arms when she finds her family, watching their home burn to the ground.

He holds her back when she tries to chase P.T. into the flames.

*

 

The doctors and nurses give her dirty looks, but she doesn’t leave him.

If there’s one thing her life, unconventional as it has been, has taught her, it’s to weather the looks, the comments, the people telling her no. His parents visit briefly, but when they see her at his bedside, his hand clasped tightly in hers, they turn up their noses and leave. Her family is more patient, they take turns trying to make her get some rest, some food, some sleep.

But he ran into a burning building because he thought she was in danger.

There isn’t much more proof she can ask for. The least she can do is make sure that she’s there for him when he wakes up.

So she waits and watches and wishes for him, and when he stirs, she’s the first face he sees. She can’t resist kissing him; the surprise and joy on his face its own reward as he realises what that kiss must mean.

Yes, she knew he was going to be trouble from the first moment she saw him.

She didn’t realise that the trouble was going to be worth it.


End file.
